In case you haven’t seen our other formulas, the idea is simple: instead of creating just one recipe, to make just one smoothie or one energy bar (that your taste buds will surely tire of by next week), we come up with a template that can be used to create virtually limitless variations, leaving room for your ideas in the process.

Smoothies and energy bars were natural choices for formulas. These are foods we eat all the time, so we need endless variations. But what else would lend itself well to a formula?

Enter the veggie burger formula

It’s not that we eat veggie burgers every single day. Or even every week.

But what’s great about veggie burgers is that if you’ve got just a few standby recipes, on any given weeknight you’ve almost certainly got everything you need in your pantry or fridge to throw something edible together in 20 or 30 minutes.

They’re super healthy and a good protein source too. And most importantly, they’re substitution-friendly, making them a perfect fit for a formula — if you’ve got a can of beans and a few random veggies in the fridge, chances are you’ve got what you need.

About the formula

And so Christine got to work creating a new formula. What’s really interesting is that she started with the energy bar formula as the backbone, since the bars are based on beans as well and have a texture that’s befitting of a burger. Of course, she replaced sweet flavors with savory ones, and designed the burgers to be fried, not baked like the bars are.

These burgers work great for a weeknight meal, and they’re perfect for tucking into a pita for a lunch on the go. We like to make them slider-style, since smaller burgers tend to stay together better than large ones and have a better texture. You can also make a large batch on the weekend and freeze ahead of time, but keep in mind that they tend to defrost better in the refrigerator than in the microwave.

Alright, here we go! The master formula is below, and we’ve listed several options for each broad type of ingredient, which you can mix and match to come up with your perfect burger. We’ve also included, at the bottom, three of our favorite combinations in case you’re not in a creating mood.

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Comments

I just tried the veggie burger recipe. It worked out well! The next time I will make more modifications to the taste but the consistency was perfect this time around. My blog post gives photos and details if you are interested. Thanks! Blog Link: http://kb1awv.com/?p=862

I make soy and almond milk with a specially designed appliance (Soyajoy G3 – search on Amazon). It works great (I had the old model which didn’t work well and recently gave it another try) – saves money and saves cartons.

But I end up with a lot of soy and almond mash – I’ll have to try adding some of that to these recipes…

Terrific — thanks! I’m determined to get away from the processed soy burgers on the market and so many recipes don’t work for us because they contain something my picky omnivore husband won’t eat. But you give choices and explain the purpose of the various ingredients. Thank you, thank you!

In the past, I’ve tried so many veggie burger recipes and been disappointed, so when I tried these last night, I cautiously used half measures as I wasn’t sure how they would turn out. I tried the Indian burger and oh my goodness, it is soooooooo good! I’m kicking myself that I didn’t use full measures and make more! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing!

I love your typical soy burger, but this recipe looks great. Plus, soy isn’t good for people with thyroid issues so this is a great alternative. Making meals from scratch is a lost art. It makes you really think about what you’re putting inside your body. A good thing. Thanks Matt.

Matt, thank you for posting this veggie burger formula and including some specific variations! This is amazing. I have already shared this with a few of my veggie friends and we all agree this is stellar! Recipes/formulas are great, so keep them coming!

This is soooooo helpful!I just decided, after a lifetime of waffling between meat-eating and veganism, that I am now committing to a strictly plant-based diet. I came upon your website by mistake… So glad to have found it! My partner is also taking this step with me! We’re very excited about it!
Just made a batch of these veggy burgers… First time I ever got to taste the ‘meat’ before it was cooked… Awesome!!! Thank you!

This is such a good idea, I’ve been looking for a fool-proof formula for meat-free burgers for ages and this one looks so easy to do and eliminates the need to have to go and buy a load of ingredients as here you can just use up what you already have! Genius!

One quick question, how do you go about freezing them? Is it best done before or after cooking? And then how would be best to reheat? Would baking them in the oven, or grilling be an option?

I freeze the burgers before cooking. I shape them into patties and lay them out on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or wax paper. Freeze the burgers until hard, then you can gather them up into a freezer baggie and they will keep their shape. Thaw in the fridge the morning before using, then fry as directed. You can microwave defrost them in a pinch, but that tends to make the burgers too soft and fall apart.

I haven’t tried grilling or baking these burgers yet. In the past, I have baked burgers at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then given them a quick pan fry to brown the outsides.

These burgers will be a little softer after being frozen because the dry ingredients soak up more moisture, which means they might fall apart during grilling, but as I said I haven’t tried it yet.

Thank you thank you thank you for this recipe/formula! So many veggie burger recipes that I see have an endless list of ingredients, and look like they will take hours to make. I love the variability built into this recipe and I cannot wait to try my own variations. Thank you again!!

Thank you for this Matt!
I’m been eating a plant-based diet for almost 3 years now and my husband is slowly joining me, but he says he would miss burgers too much, so now I have some options to give him that might help make the switch easier for him.

Would cooked lentils or split peas work in place of beans? It seems like they should, and I’ve made a recipe for split pea burgers before (they turned out well), but I’m not sure if I’d have to adjust the amount or not.

Fantastic idea! I used your formula to make my own take on indian style patties and they were amazing! I can’t wait to try out the formula again and make another great burger. A huge thank you from Ireland for all the great work you guys do 🙂

Love these. My husband could even figure out the Mexican sliders and had them ready when I arrived home last night. 🙂 He substituted fresh corn for canned and carrots for spinach based on what we already had in the fridge. Yummy!

So far, I’ve done the classic sliders recipe for the vegetarians at my work on hamburger and hot dog day, and tonight I used Italian style choices within the formula to make meatball subs!! Thank you so much for publishing this!!!

This recipe is a lifesaver! We have been plant based for 1 year and I have never made a veggie burger from scratch. I tried the indian sliders and everyone LOVED them. We have six kiddos so that was a relief. I just made double batches of the Mexican, Classic and Indian versions for the freezer this week. They are great to have in a pinch. I also found raw shelled hemp seed at Costco this week and used it in place of 1/2 the oats! I’m so glad I know what is in my veggie burgers now!!! Thanks

We’ve stopped eating red meat, pork and fowl three years ago, and seafood or soy burgers just never appealed to us. The veggie burger formula is a gem! I’ve made the “Classic Sliders” twice now and made them into regular size patties and baked them, they held together well, weren’t dry, and the texture was great. I plan to make a huge batch once a month for burgers once a week.

I was going to try this method myself. Glad to see it worked. Anyone know of a way to calculate nutrition facts for these burgers? Do you simply add the information together and divide by the number of patties it makes?

The easiest way I find to calculate nutrition these days is using the my fitness pal app. It’s free and you can track what you eat if that’s important to you, or you can just assemble your own recipes in the app and it does the work of calculating most of the nutrients for you. I hope that’s helpful. 🙂

Hi Matt,
I make veggie burgers all the time. They’re easy and sooooo yummy with just mayo, tomatoes and lettuce on whole meal bread. My husband uses Lebanese bread since he’s from Egypt. I got to try the Indian patties they do sound great. Thanks for your article

This recipe is SO delish and I love the mix and match component. I’ve even had non-vegans LOVE this. My only issue is getting them to stay together. They are slightly crumbly, which isn’t the end of the world when they taste so good, but any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Made these for dinner with what I had on hand. Black beans, corn,green pepper and cauliflower. Oatmeal for my dry base salsa as my liquid. Taco seasoning and chipotle as my spices. Loved loved loved them! I actually cooked them up then put them in tortilla shells w vegan cheese because It seemed appropriate. I look forward to trying many different combos. beans and veggies and sauces oh my!

Hi Matt,
I really like your idea of the flexible recipe, of using what you prefer. I just wanted to let you know about another similar type of flexible recipe called the Magical Loaf Studio, which is located here: http://www.veganlunchbox.com/loaf_studio.html. Jennifer McCann created the Vegan Dinner Loaf recipe page. I’d recommend that you and her possibly get together and make a similar recipe page that she has for loaf, but made for your burger recipe instead. Have a look at what she had done, it’s great!
Best Wishes,
Stephen

Absolutely horrible. Such a disappointed. I followed the directions and used the correct amount of dry ingredients, beans, everything. It came out the consistency of dog food. Never making again. Would not recommend to anyone

Bummer! That does seem to be the common complaint — the consistency sometimes turns out badly. But sometimes the texture turns out well, considering it’s a formula … I wish I could figure out what ingredient makes the difference.

You sir, are a genius. I was looking for a good vegan burger and haven’t had much luck. This formula work fabulously for me! I have found my perfect veggie burger! Thank you so much for this. I’m sharing it with everyone I know!

Great Recipe. I love the versatility of it. Only thing I added was ground flax meal to act as a binder. Tripled my batch and now I have cooked burgers in the freezer for quick meals for the family and BBQ’s this summer.
Thanks!

I’m sorry, this didn’t work for me. I used flaxseed instead of the other dry ingredients and it’s all messed up. they fried nicely on each side with coconut oil but the insides never quite formed. They all just mushed down into a giant fried blob. I’m gonna try to put in a big meatloaf pan and just bake the whole thing.

This is probably the best veggie burger I have ever tried. I used your Mexican sliders as inspiration and added different ingredients from your suggested ingredients like mushrooms,balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, liquid aminos, paprika, cayenne pepper, herbes de provence,tomato paste and mustard. They are amazing and so much so that I ate a lot without forming them into burgers and cooking them. The only slight problem is the texture. I think this may have been my fault as I may have processed the beans,veggies and seasonings too much before added the rice and oats. I always find it very hard not to over process and to know when to stop processing. And maybe it’s the size of my food processor but it was hard to incorporate the rice and oats into the mix without turning the rest of the mix to mush. So what I did was a take a bit of the mix out so my food processor could incorporate all the other ingredients. I then mixed everything together in a bowl. I added some rice flour because it seemed to mushy. It could stick together but I thought it had to be a little more doughy. The rice flour worked well and I suggest using that if you have a similar problem. But overall that wasn’t a major problem. The burgers didn’t fall apart on the pan or anything and they wouldn’t have even if I hadn’t added the extra flour. The burgers are full of flavour and I love them and definitely will make them again. The recipe definitely didn’t make enough haha. I will also experiment with other flavour since there is so much room in this formula to make any veggie burger your heart desires. Thank you so much for posting this and sorry if my comment is all over the place.

Wow. I love the Indian patty – I just made it and it’s delicious. I also made little flattened ‘meatballs’ which I added on top of a butter chicken sauce. Probably not super great for the waistline, but DANG! You can also break up the patties (or just save the ones you ruined when you tried to flip them…) and wrap them up in lettuce and eat them. So good. So, so good.

This is BRILLIANT! I just made a batch tonight and they were delicious. I don’t have a food processor so I mashed the beans in a bowl using a potato masher, then added the veggies/liquid and mixed again, and then added the rest and mixed again. It held together very well.

I made these burgers this weekend, and they are SO DELICIOUS! Just amazing. I do feel, though, that my burger mix needed more of a binder so I did mix 2T of flaxmeal with 8T of warm water and added it to the mix after 20 seconds, and it worked very well. I am so thankful for this veggie burger formula because it is so versatile and you can make tasty veggie burgers a million different ways! Thank you!!

Dear Matt,
I am Indian and have been making simple potato patties all my life. I made these last night and they are super awesome! My kids loved them. I used canned chickpeas, zucchini , a mushroom ,sweet potatoes and bread crumbs and measured everything for the first time in my life.
Great recipe! Thanks a lot
Cheers!
Radha

This is absolutely genius. The formula works great, I made my burgers with some corn, taco chips and Mexican spice but you can easily substitute with any other ingredients to make it your taste. Amazing, is all I can say 🙂

I’ve been making these burgers for a long time and each time they turn out different but delicious. I usually make a giant batch and freeze them. They are a lifesaver on those days when i’m too busy or stressed out to make anything. Thanks for the recipe.

This is a fabulous recipe. I love the concept of using whatever is around in the kitchen and garden to suit the seasons. So versatile. I had a great texture, consistency and flavour was fantastic. The leftovers the following day were even greater in flavour. This will be made over again in my household. I was wondering what it means in the dry ingredients suggestions and it mentions buckwheat as a first option. I assume this is precooked buckwheat? Is this raw or cooked? Looking forward to your response.

I like the idea of a “formula” from which you can create your own recipes, and just adapt to whatever you have in. Nice one! I am keeping this for future use. I might paste it inside the foodie cupboard door! Thanks.

[…] animal). You can make amazing bean burgers to replace old burgers with. Check out this perfect Veggie Burger formula! You can also try experimenting with seitan or tofu! If you live in an area that sells […]

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